Kites
by nithila
Summary: In which the Seigaku regulars fly kites at the beach. Tezuka escapes, Ryoma protects his kite, and Fuji, as always, messes everything up.


**Totally random. I had the 'Let's go fly a kite, up to the highest heights,' song from Mary Poppins stuck in my head.**

* * *

Kikumaru stared at Momoshiro seriously. The younger boy, however, remained utterly oblivious to his intense gaze, and was instead looking at a restaurant poster somewhere in the opposite direction.

"Momo," Kikumaru said, still staring, "There's something we should do."

"I know," Momo said mournfully, still eying the poster. "There are just so many places I haven't eaten at yet. We should try them all some day." He considered that for a moment, and then pointed at the poster. "Let's go there on Friday!"

Kikumaru momentarily lost his train of thought, and rubbed his palms together excitedly. "Ooh, that's a great idea! We could get Fuji and Ochibi and Oishi and everyone else and call it celebration for-" He paused and frowned. "Wait, that's not what I was going to say."

Momo blinked.

"I was going to say,'Let's go fly a kite'."

Momo blinked again, his mind still clouded with thoughts of food.

Kikumaru looked at him seriously. "I haven't flown a kite since preschool," he informed his junior. "And I only realized yesterday how much I'm missing out on."

"Why yesterday?"

"Because I was trying to spy on the crazy self-proclaimed acrobatic monkey from Hyotei, and all the regulars were flying _kites_." Kikumaru shook his head sadly. "To think we've never tried it before."

Momo looked away, slightly uncomfortable. "We-ell...I flew a kite just last week."

His senior rounded on him, eyes widening in shock. "You _what?_"

Momo looked sheepish. "...I flew a kite just last week."

Kikumaru stumbled back a few steps, holding a hand to his chest. "Without...me?

Momo looked even more sheepish. "Well...it wasn't really up to me to invite you. A few of the guys from Fudoumine were going to the beach, and An-chan invited me and Echizen, and, well...we flew kites."

Kikumaru stared at him incredulously. "Ochibi, too?" He held his hands up towards the sky and cried dramatically, "Why, God? What did I do to deserve this betrayal?"

Momo sighed. "Really, senpai you don't have to be that upset. We could always go another time."

Kikumaru's eyes shined. "Really? You would do that? For me?"

"...Wasn't that what you were asking in the first place?"

Kikumaru thought about it. It was, he realized. "Alright then, let's fly kites on Saturday!"

The two of them high-fived each other, and continued down the road grinning to themselves.

* * *

Kites, Ryoma mused, three days later lying flat on his towel at the beach, were pitiful things. He watched Kikumaru run around in circles with a monkey shaped kite, and Momo run around with a bright green frog. Fuji stood a few feet away from where Ryoma was stretched out, flying an elegant bald eagle. Kaidoh held a snake (Inui had loaned it to him - for a price that Ryoma didn't particularly want to know), Inui had a dragon, Oishi held a turtle, and Taka held a typical, normal, kite-shaped kite. Tezuka, on the other hand, had gone suspiciously missing.

Ryoma would have joined them all, really, but unfortunately, he was rather attached to his own kite, and had no intention of endangering its life by flying it around people who seemed to have never seen a kite before. Kikumaru and Momo were running around each other, tangling their strings and yelling at each other, Oishi attempted to help them and sent his own turtle crashing, Inui put his kite ( and Kaidoh's) through unnecessary perils in the name of scientific experimentation, and Taka's kite just looked boring.

Which wasn't technically an offense, until said kite landed on Ryoma's face. Had he been taken down by a dragon, he would have understood. But for a normal, boring-looking kite to crash on him and get the better of him? It had some _nerve_. And if it treated the great Echizen Ryoma in such a way, he didn't want to know what it would do to the great Echizen Ryoma's precious kite.

So, with Tezuka missing, only Fuji was left flying a kite normally. And since Fuji was Fuji...well. It was possible that the tensai would decide that he had to become king of the skies and destroy all their kites just for fun.

So to put things simply, Echizen Ryoma was not going to risk flying his beloved, beautiful, cat shaped kite.

"You're missing out, Echizen," Fuji called softly, not looking away from his bald eagle. "The wind is perfect today."

Ryoma scoffed. The wind was most definitely _not_ perfect. It was surprising the tensai could hold his kite up so well in such weather. But then again, he _was_ a tensai.

"Ochibi, ochibi!" Kikumaru shouted, waving his arms energetically (which isn't a very wise thing to do when your kite is nose diving towards the ocean). "Come and fly with us!"

Fly with us. How profound. But, no thank you, he valued life. Or rather, his kite's life.

"Yeah, Echizen, you can't just sit there all day! " Momo agreed loudly, likewise waving his arms. Ryoma pitied their kites, really.

And as for Momo's question, he most certainly could. If all else failed, he'd escape like Tezuka. He still had no idea where his captain could be.

"Perhaps he drowned," Fuji said dryly, from a few steps to his right. "Good for us, isn't it? We can take turns for singles one." He chuckled darkly, and Ryoma moved a few feet away from him. Poor, poor, Tezuka. His own best friend was happy that he had died.

If he really had died. He hoped he hadn't. Tezuka was the only sane person on the team.

"Ochibi!" Kikumaru insisted again, placing his arms on his hips and glaring threateningly (Momo had kidnapped his kite). "Are you going to get up or not?"

"I'm sleeping," Ryoma informed him wisely.

"Oh no, you're not," Kikumaru narrowed his eyes dangerously and marched towards him. "You, are just being incredibly, incredibly lazy."

Now that wasn't right at all. As William Shakespeare would say, 'his will hath in it a more modest working.'

"The wind is all wrong, senpai," he protested. "My kite will end up drowning."

"Interesting..." Inui started, looking towards them in fascination. "It appears that Echizen's kite flying skills are very poor."

Momo and Kikumaru burst out laughing, and Fuji chuckled softly. Ryoma scowled. His skills were highly commendable - most exceptionally amazing. It wasn't his fault that he felt no need to kill his kite.

"Tezuka, on the other hand, doesn't know how to fly kites at all, and has no intention to learn. Which is why he is hiding behind that building," Inui pointed at a small restaurant near the road, simultaneously holding his kite and flipping through his notebook. How he managed that was slightly difficult to understand.

A few of the regulars sniggered, and Ryoma sighed. Poor, poor Tezuka.

On the plus side, he knew where his captain was, and could now join him if he was threatened again.

"My eagle is watching you, Echizen," Fuji murmured, smiling, eyes turned towards the sky as he expertly manipulated his kite to avoid the tangled mess of the frog, the monkey, and the snake. "So don't try anything...disappointing."

Ryoma inched away from him again, dragging the bag his kite was in with him. His senior was getting creepier by the second.

Kikumaru placed himself in front of him just then and glared down at him. "You, Ochibi, are in big trouble."

"I didn't bring my kite," Ryoma tried weakly.

"He did," Inui informed them.

Kikumaru's eyes narrowed further. "Get up. And get. Your. Kite. Now."

Before he could come up with a reasonable way out of the situation, Fuji spoke up from behind him. "Why, Echizen, your kite is beautiful."

Huh? He jumped to his feet and whirled around quickly, confused, and saw the most frightening scene he could have imagined.

_Fuji Syusuke_ was _holding_ his kite. The older boy had probably taken it out of his bag when he was spacing out. He gave his senior the best death glare, already knowing that it wouldn't scare the tensai. "That's _mine_," he bit out.

Fuji smiled pleasantly. "Why yes, I was aware of that."

"How _very_ intelligent of you. Now give it back."

Fuji feigned hurt. "Now, now, is that how you talk to your elders?"

"Nya! Ochibi's kite is a cat! I want to see!" Kikumaru ran towards Fuji, arms outstretched.

"No no no don't give it to him!"

Fuji moved aside casually, and Kikumaru charged straight past him. Ryoma sighed in relief, before remembering that his kite was still in dangerous hands.

Fuji smiled as he examined it, easily ignoring Kikumaru, who was still jumping around him. "It really is pretty, Echizen. It's a pity you don't know how to fly it." Ryoma seethed, and was tempted to join Kikumaru in his mad jumping spree, but Fuji would have ignored him, too. "Do you mind if I fly it?"

"Yes, I would mind," he ground out.

Fuji smiled. "Ah, I knew you'd be reasonable. Stand aside, Eiji. And hold my eagle, will you?"

Ryoma watched, horrified, as Fuji handed his kite over to Kikumaru and unravelled the thread of his own. He watched, horrified, as Fuji prepared to let it into the sky, the very same sky as the tangled frog and monkey, the crashing turtle, and the dangerously scientific dragon.

And he came to a quick decision.

Echizen Ryoma was not called the prince of tennis for nothing. He was quick, he was strong, he was _powerful_. Especially when he was annoyed. And now, he was practically murderous.

No, he wasn't going to attack Fuji. Even he wasn't that suicidal. Instead, he charged towards Kikumaru.

All Kikumaru did was blink, and say, "Eh?" before the bald eagle was forcibly wrestled from him.

Ryoma quickly moved away from his two seniors, breathing fast. "I'll trade you," he panted at Fuji, who seemed rather amused by the proceedings. "Return my kite to me in one piece, and I'll give you yours."

Fuji smiled. "And what if I don't want my kite back?"

There was a pause.

...well. He hadn't thought of that.

He blinked at his senior for a long moment, while the other regulars watched them with bated breath. Fuji's smile never wavered.

"Echizen," Tezuka appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, and had Ryoma been any lesser version of himself, he would have cried tears of relief. His captain, his captain, his wonderfully sane captain -

"Give Fuji his kite back."

His imaginary tears evaporated, and he stared at his captain in disbelief. "What? But he's the one -"

"Fuji," Tezuka continued, "Return Echizen's kite to him."

That was more like it.

Fuji laughed softly, and moved towards Ryoma. "We'll switch on the count of three, shall we?"

Ryoma nodded, slightly surprised that he'd won so easily.

"Well then, one...two...three..."

They each held an arm out and grabbed the string in the other person's hand. Ryoma moved away quickly before his senior could attempt anything unfair.

Fuji smile only widened, and alarms went off in his head. "I did tell you that my eagle was watching you, Echizen, he said slowly. He jerked his eagle aside quickly, and it bumped into Ryoma's cat slightly.

His eyes widened. "What the -"

Fuji moved around him quickly. His eagle was now effectively tangled up with Ryoma's cat. "Now there's just one more thing we need..."

"Look out!" Momo shouted, as if on cue, and the monkey-frog combo came crashing towards the eagle-cat, sending it crashing towards the ground as well...

...and then all four kites lay in an unceremonious heap on the floor.

Ryoma twitched.

"Don't worry," Fuji smiled, "The cat is still perfectly intact."

Tezuka sighed. "Everyone, fifty laps around the restaurant."

* * *

**Tada.**

**My sister wishes me to tell you all to beware the purple polka dots. Don't ask me why.  
**


End file.
